Tiger News
Swansea High Freshman Academy
February 2016
“Ensuring Student Performance at the Highest Level”
Important Dates
February 2016 - March 2016
Feb 12: Inclement weather makeup day--- There WILL be school for students today
Feb 15: Presidents Day-- No School
Feb 18: Interims
Mar 11: Teacher Workday- No School
Mar 23: End of 3rd Quarter
Mar 25: Inclement weather makeup day--- There WILL be school for students today
Mar 26- Apr 3: Spring break- No school
Flood Make up Days
Mark your calendars-- The following days have been scheduled as make up days, February 12 & March 25. These days were scheduled as days the students had off, but under state law we must make up 1-3 school days that were missed due to snow, extreme weather or other disruptions.
Again, students will now have school these days: February 12 & March 25
Use the below link for more information on Make Up Days
Don't be left out- Buy a yearbook!!!
Guidance News
SHFA will host a Career Fair on Friday, February 19th. The students will have the opportunity to speak with professionals from many different career clusters.
Registration for the 2016-2017 year has started. Students have already selected classes, and we will discuss this in more detail during the IGP conference.
Dana Lackey
Teacher News Corner
Mrs. Skinner and Mrs. Nicholas:
--Our students finished their Physics projects and displayed their talents on STEAM Night. Several students are now working hard to prepare for Science Olympiad.
Science Olympiad will take place on February 27 at Newberry College. If a student wins at Science Olympiad they receive a $2000 scholarship to Newberry College and an opportunity to go to Nationals.
Ms. Railey:
My students are starting a public art unit this week. The goal is for students to realize that art doesn’t have to be displayed in a museum or gallery to be considered art. Students were challenged with the idea of creating something, whether it be a quote or iconic image or anything they can come up with, that will speak to students and staff at SHFA. Students will be drawing up their ideas and turning them into stencils to later “tag” the walls. Tagging just means that students will use their stencil to spray paint their image on the walls. My hope is to get students excited about what they are doing and knowing their finished project could potentially be displayed permanently (or until someone paints over it) is something they are already showing some excitement in.
English and DFSA Departments
Students in History and English are preparing for the regional National History Day (NHD) competition, which will be held at the SC State Museum on March 14th. Students will research a topic in history, while making connections to a particular theme. The NHD theme this year is Exploration, Encounter, Exchange, and students can compete in one the following categories:
- website
- documentary
- exhibit
- performance
- paper
Ms. Campbell
Beta Club spring convention will be Feb. 12 - 14
This month the BETA Club is doing a fill the cop car with stuffed animals drive.
Feb 5th Beta Club reading at ECC
Beta Club meetings Feb 3rd and 17th
STEAM Night!
STEAM night held at the SHFA gym on Thursday, January 14th. There were physics competitions, student artwork, research projects on display, and other fun activities like make a paper airplane. The evening also raised money to help support sending our students to Science Olympiad.
THANK YOU to all who came out and made the night a success!!!!!!!!
Science Olympiad will take place on February 27 at Newberry College. If a student wins at Science Olympiad they receive a $2000 scholarship to Newberry College and an opportunity to go to Nationals.
"Pendulum Art"
"Defying Gravity"
Samantha Gantt and Imani Cokley (not pictured)
STEAM Night
Announcements
SHFA 2nd Community Night will take place on April 14th. Join us for food, fun, and celebrate our talented students. More details to come.
Coming in March, Ms. Campbell's Be the Change group will hold a Community Health Fair. Check back for more information. More details to come.
Be the Change- We are excited to continue Be the Change with the Class of 2019. We kicked off the new year of Be the Change on October 29th. This year's focus is Community: how our students can improve our community. Our students are working on different projects including beautification, health awareness, Special Olympics, and many more exciting topics. Students will be working of these these topics throughout the year.
Celebrations!
On February 1st there was an art show event at the Columbia Museum of Art and SHFA's own James Bond had his art work displayed in a contest he entered. He was 1 of 2 students chosen to represent Swansea and 1 of 29 pieces of art representing high school students in the Columbia area! James Bond's artwork will be on display at the museum of art for a month and then at Lexington Medical Center for another month.
SHFA's Honors Choir participated in Region Choir at Limestone University Feb 29. In addition, Mackenzie Hendrix auditioned and was selected for a 9th and 10th grade honors choir held at Wingate University
Keys to Success
- Communication
- Kindness
- Selfless Service
Teacher of the Year
Congratulations to Laura Liger for being named
2015-2016 Teacher of the Year!
What's New at SHFA
Students have been participating in several new exciting activities at SHFA:
Stop, Drop, and Read: We are trying to encourage our students, teachers, and everyone to READ. At random times during the week, an announcement is made for everyone to stop what they are doing and read for 20 minutes. Our Staff is reading as well to model their love of reading. It gives everyone a chance to read for pleasure.
Carpe Diem: Carpe Diem is from 8:00 to 8:20. During this time our students are able to eat breakfast, check email, reach out to teachers and staff, check grades, or anything else that could benefit them… They could also use it for PLT (personal learn time) for any class, read for their own enjoyment, work on Curriculet, etc… This time is valuable and we encourage our students not to waste it.
Mentorship: Similarly to Carpe Diem, students can work with their mentor teacher to improve their grades and work on a plan to succeed. This is extremely valuable time for teachers to assist their group of students to become advocates for their own success. Mentor teachers can sit down with each student and look at and discuss their grades directly in powerschool and help them work through a plan for improvement that should include emailing teachers and/or parents right then and there.
Swansea High Freshman Academy
Website: http://shfa.lexington4.net/
Location: 1195 I W Hutto Road, Swansea, SC 29160, United States
Phone: 803-490-7006